Nissan drives back into black in FY 2009

• Source: Xinhua
• [08:37 May 13 2010]
• Comments

Nissan Motor Co. announced Wednesday it had returned to the black in fiscal 2009 due to cost cutting initiatives and increased demand in Asian and North American markets.

Japan's third largest automaker by sales reported a group net profit of 42.39 billion yen ($458.61 million) for the year through March, compared to a 233.71 billion yen ($2.52 billion) loss reported a year earlier.

Nissan, famous for its Cube minicar, Fuga sedan and Murano compact SUV, posted an operating profit of 311.61 billion yen ($3.37 billion), against a loss of 137.92 billion yen ($1.49 billion), on sales of 7.52 trillion yen ($81.35 billion).

For the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, the Yokohama- based automaker posted a net loss of 11.6 billion yen ($125.5 million), compared with a loss of 277 billion yen ($2.99 billion) a year earlier, the company said.

For the current fiscal year through March, Nissan expects a 254 percent growth in net profit to 150 billion yen ($1.62 billion), a 12 percent increase in operating profit to 350 billion yen ($3.78 billion) and a 9.1 percent rise in sales to 8.2 trillion yen ($88.71 billion) the company said in a statement Wednesday.

Nissan said their Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn expects Nissan's sales in China to rise 14 percent this fiscal year and units delivered to North America to increase 12 percent this fiscal year to 1.2 million vehicles.

In the fiscal fourth quarter ended March, Nissan said its sales in China had grown 68 percent to 243,000 units and plans are in place to begin sales of its hugely popular March compact car in the second half of this year.

Reports state the Japanese automaker aims to raise its production capacity in China by approximately 70 percent to 900, 000 units a year by 2012, to meet growing demand from the world's largest automobile market.